Monday, July 03, 2006

Casualties of War - Update



In Dave's posting "Casualties of War", he described the allegations of the rape and murder of an Iraqi women and the murder of her family by US soldiers. Today, federal prosecutors have laid charges against 21 year old Steven D. Green of the 101st Airborne Division, who was recently discharged because of a "personality disorder

The murder and rape charges against him grew out of a military investigation involving up to five soldiers in the March rape and killing of the woman in Mahmoudiya and three of her relatives, one of them a young girl believed to be about 5 years old.

[...]

The age of the rape victim was also unclear. U.S. officials close to the case have described her as a young woman, and FBI documents estimated her age at 25, but a neighbor of the family said the rape victim was 14 and her sister was 10.

The affidavit filed in Green's case by FBI special agent Gregor J. Ahlers of Louisville said Green and three other soldiers from the 101st's 502nd Infantry Regiment were working a traffic checkpoint in Mahmoudiya on March 12 when they conspired to rape a woman who lived nearby.

According to the affidavit's account, the soldiers changed their clothes before going to the woman's residence to avoid detection. Once there, the affidavit said, Green took three members of the family -- an adult male and female, and a girl estimated to be 5 years old -- into a bedroom, after which shots were heard from inside.

"Green came to the bedroom door and told everyone, 'I just killed them. All are dead,"' the affidavit said


Four other suspects in the case have been confined to their base (in Iraq) but no charges have been laid against them...yet.

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